Twisted By Love, Reincarnation Tales, Book 1 (7 page)

“I have been known to eat an entire can of
whipped cream standing at the fridge,” he admitted.

“You’re making me hungry,” she said,
belatedly realizing the sexual context in the words. Her face
heated, but she put her feet on his shoulders and pushed. The chair
he sat in rolled back until it slid off the plastic office mat and
hit the carpet.

His eyes glittered, and his smile gleamed.
“Is it my turn, Livie?”

She shimmied off the desk, tugging at her
dress to cover herself.

He stilled her with a hand. “Leave it like
that. I still want to touch you.”

Her breasts swelled, and renewed moisture
bathed her inner thighs. She pushed his legs apart and knelt
between his knees. She’d exposed herself top and bottom, but Burn
hadn’t undone his tie or his belt buckle. The front of his slacks
stretched tight over his erection. She stroked lightly. “Does it
hurt?”

“It aches for you.” He put his hand on top of
hers and pressed harder, caressing the full length. Then suddenly,
he took her face in his hands, held her still. “We were made to do
this together, Livie. I was made to fit in your mouth and your
body, and you were made to take every inch of me.”

It seemed such an odd way to put it.

He shook her lightly when she didn’t answer.
“Do you believe me, Livie?”

There was something about him, about her
reaction to him from the moment she’d seen him. Something she’d
never felt before. “Yes, I believe you.”

“Then take me.”

He was asking for more than just her lips and
mouth on him. He wanted a piece of her soul. Or he was offering her
a piece of his. Somehow that seemed so much more frightening.

All her life, she’d been the giver. She’d
comforted her mother when her father acted like an ass, listening
late into the night after one of their fights, until he finally
pulled into the drive. After he became ill, she’d fed him mashed
vegetables when he could no longer feed himself, stroked his brow
as he slipped into that final coma. She’d watched his last breath
sigh from his lips, then sat alone with him in the dark until the
mortician came.

And there was that horrible night five years
ago when Toni tried to kill herself, when Livie had scoured the
bloodstains out of the grout in the bathroom’s tile floor.

Giving was easy. Taking meant a debt that had
to be paid.

“Take me, Livie. Please. Make me scream.”
Burn’s whispered plea surrounded her, seeped into her pores,
burrowed into her marrow. It grew inside her, became a part of her.
She wanted this. It was as much for her as it was for him.

Her fingers fumbled at his belt buckle. His
zipper got stuck halfway down. In the end, Burn finished the task,
and then he was in her hand. Hard, smooth flesh. Warm. Pulsing with
life. And beautiful. So beautiful. She was tired of giving. Just
this once, she wanted to take, everything, all that he offered and
more, and she didn’t care if there’d be a price she’d have to pay
for it later.

She took him in her mouth, sliding her tongue
along the slit, drinking in the tiny drop.

“Ahh, Livie.” He scraped the hair back from
her face, then fisted his hands in it, guiding her.

She gently cupped him, squeezed his most
sensitive parts. He groaned and his hips surged. He was right. He
fit perfectly. She slid her tongue along the underside to his base,
all the way up to the tip again, then used her teeth lightly as she
drew him back in. He throbbed, spread his legs, pulled her closer,
then ran his palms down her chest to caress her nipples.

When he once again fisted his hands in her
hair and showed her the rhythm he wanted, Livie stroked him with
her lips. Faster, deeper, his taste filling her mouth. He was
better than any delicacy she’d ever had. She let go completely,
clenching her hands on his thighs, bracing herself as his body rose
to meet her lips. His muscles bunched, tensed, and then he was
holding her head still, simply giving her his length in powerful
strokes, as if he were inside her body instead of her mouth.

His gut clenched, he shouted incoherent
words, then bent over her, cradling her head as she received him,
swallowing his essence right down to the last few drops. Then she
caressed his length with her tongue and lips, delicately, as his
body jerked. When he finally settled, she let him fall from her
mouth and buried her face against his crisp hair. He smelled good,
clean, male. His hands slid down her back, smoothing along her
sides as he draped his body over hers. He kissed the bare flesh
just above the open zipper of her dress before sinuously sliding
down into a seated position, and gathering her into his arms.

“That was too damn good for words. I told you
we’d fit.”

“You didn’t exactly scream.”

“Not quite. But anyone out by the elevators
probably would have heard me.” One side of his mouth quirked in a
sated, cocky smile. “Screaming is for girlie-men.”

She laughed. “Well, you certainly aren’t a
girlie-man. Definitely a manly-man.”

“Thank God you think that.” He kissed her
full on the lips, mingling his taste with hers, exchanging unique
flavors.

“Will you come home with me?” he whispered
against her lips.

She took a moment to answer. “I think it’s
too early in our relationship for me to meet your family.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but he combed his
fingers through her hair and said, “We’re not done, Livie, not by a
long shot.”

No, they weren’t done. She needed to feel him
inside her.

He stroked her hair back from her face as
he’d done when she held him in her mouth. “Livie.”

She raised her head to meet his eyes and felt
herself drowning in their depths.

“This is right, Livie. What’s happening
between us is right. Even if it’s moving fast.”

Right or wrong didn’t matter. They’d gone far
past the point of turning back.

Chapter Seven

The nerves had started the moment she’d
climbed into her car to follow Burn to his home. The moment when
he’d stopped touching her, when she could no longer meet his
melting gaze. The moment she came back to reality. Livie couldn’t
believe the intimate things she’d done with a man she barely knew.
No, correct that, a man she didn’t know
at all
.

Her feelings in the car versus the office
were like night and day. This was crazy. What was she doing
following his black Lexus to somewhere in the Belmont hills? Cars
flashed by on the opposite side of the freeway, their headlights
too bright. Burn was just a shape in the vehicle ahead of her.
Anonymous. He drove sedately, probably more sedately than usual.
Near the airport, a bright blue hybrid suddenly zipped between
them, and she was almost glad. She could say she’d lost him. It was
dark, his car was black, other vehicles got in the way... But the
hybrid exited, and the Lexus was in front of her again.

Livie’s heart was racing, her skin still
flushed from the things he’d done to her.

“This isn’t like me,” she whispered in the
dark of the car.

But she could still taste him, feel the
imprint of his fingers on her. God, she was still wet for him. What
they’d shared was more glorious than anything she’d fantasized. But
with fantasy, there was no guilt or shame. She didn’t jump into bed
with a man the moment she met him. She’d never had a one-night
stand. Why did she react to
him
this way?

The arguments went on endlessly in her mind
until Burn took the ramp for Highway 92. She didn’t live far from
here, just a few exits up, her condo complex overlooking San
Francisco Bay where it extended down the Peninsula.

The cars were moving too fast, not speed so
much as the feeling that they were getting closer and closer. She
followed him off another exit ramp, her car coming to stop behind
his at the light. He raised a hand, a signal that could have meant
anything from
Glad you’re still behind me
to
Christ, I
can’t wait to get inside you
.

For once, she wanted to be like Toni. Her
sister fell head over heels for a man in the first half hour. Livie
had the same feelings, but they overwhelmed her. It was so much
simpler when Burn was just her elevator man.

He led her along a winding route that
reminded her of a maze she’d be trapped in.

The neighborhood was well tended, the lawns
manicured, the yards pristine, the bushes trimmed. Landscaping
included fountains, fish ponds, and even a man-made creek running
beneath a small bridge flanked by miniature Japanese pagodas.

Burn pulled into the driveway of a bungalow
surrounded by huge rhododendrons and round, perfectly shaped tea
trees. In the spring, it would be glorious. Though there was room
on the drive, Livie pulled alongside the curb. She sat for a
moment, watching as he climbed out of his car and headed toward
her. Her palms were sweaty on the steering wheel.

Hell, she couldn’t just sit there, so she
shoved open the door. Burn held it for her as she stood, but she
didn’t move from the vee.

His body heat warmed her. The hard planes of
his face stole her breath. For a man who couldn’t be called
handsome, he was terribly compelling. If she let him, he’d have her
inside his house and down on his bed before she could open her
mouth to protest.

She blurted out the words. “I changed my
mind.”

He smiled. God, it almost melted her. She had
no clue why this man could affect her so.

“I knew I should have made you drive with
me,” he said, his tone deep with that sexy, distinctive rasp of
his, and almost amused.

The night air was cool, and here in the hills
the wind had kicked up. She pulled her blazer tighter around her.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a tease.”

“Don’t apologize to me for what you feel.” He
put his hand to her cheek. His palm was large, warm, and slightly
rough. The man exuded compassion as easily as he did
sensuality.

With a last sweep of his finger across her
cheek, he dropped his hand. “I rushed you,” he went on. “I should
have taken you to dinner. Or at least that drink I promised you.”
His gaze roamed her face like a physical touch. “I got carried away
when I had you so close.”

She’d never been the type to carry men away.
Everything she’d felt in her office swept over her again, the
desire, the need, the sense of how right it was. How right
he
was.

“But I can’t,” she said, as if she’d voiced
her thoughts. “I’m not ready for all this.”

“You’re cautious. I usually am, too.” He gave
her that comforting smile again. “I won’t pressure you.” He reached
inside his shirt pocket. “I’ll give you my cell phone number.” He
held her hand, laid a card in it. “It’s up to you. Call when you’re
ready.” He gave a wry lift of his mouth. “Dinner. I promise. A
date. No funny business. Even if you throw yourself at me.”

She was in danger of throwing herself at him
right this minute. But she was better off taking him up on what he
offered. “Thank you.” She tipped her head. “What if I never
call?”

“I’ll leave you alone.” He waited two long
beats of her heart. “But I want you to call.” The street light
glimmered in his eyes. “We need to find out what this is between
us.”

We, us.
Not just him alone. He knew
she felt this strange compulsion, too, that she’d been watching
him, thinking of him, fantasizing about him.

“I have to go.” Before she decided to
stay.

“I’m going to kiss you goodnight.”

He gave her warning but didn’t ask for
permission. His mouth covered hers in a soul-stealing kiss that
heated her straight down to her center. He possessed her in that
moment. She wound her arms around his neck, his card still clutched
in her fingers. She rose on her toes, plastering her body to his,
needing to feel him everywhere.

He eased away. “I don’t want to be accused of
coercion so I’ll let you go now.”

They’d gone beyond coercion. She might leave
him tonight, but she knew shed call him. It was simply a matter of
time. This must be how Toni felt when she fell headlong in lust
with a man. Livie had never thought it could happen to her.

He closed the car door on her once she was
safely buckled in, then rounded the hood of her car. As she pulled
away from the curb, he stood on the sidewalk. She had the feeling
he would always be watching. It wasn’t a frightening thought at
all.

Livie didn’t notice the car parked down the
street, or that someone sat inside, someone who watched them
both.

* * * * *

Livie wasn’t any less confused when she
arrived home. She definitely wanted him. She liked how sexy he made
her feel. She craved being wanted by him. She just didn’t like how
fast it had happened or how helpless she was to fight what she
felt.

After tossing her keys and purse on the hall
table and kicking off her shoes, she went straight to the kitchen
for a glass of wine. The tartness wet her dry throat.

Standing in the kitchen, she could smell him
on her, an indefinable male scent that clung tantalizingly to her
body.

She was padding barefoot into the living
room, the carpet soft against her toes, when the front door
opened.

Toni stood framed in the hallway, mascara
streaking her cheeks.

Livie’s stomach turned over. “What’s
wrong?”

Toni slammed the door. Livie couldn’t help
the wince on her neighbors’ behalf.

“Reese won’t answer my messages.” Toni
stalked into the living room and dramatically threw herself on the
sofa.

“Do you want some wine?” Livie offered.

“Just a sip of yours.” Toni possessed the
glass and gulped, taking too much to even enjoy the chardonnay.

“You need to forget this guy.” She sat on the
couch beside Toni. “He isn’t worth it. And you barely knew him.”
Livie thought of Burn. She barely knew him, but she was hooked.